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May 9, 2005.
Kristy Moon, editor.
Summer Job Tips (Part 1)
--Kristy Moon
It’s really hard to believe that we’re already in the month of May. The days are getting
longer, and T-shirts and shorts are becoming more visible. This means
it’s not too early to start thinking about summer – trips, reading list, and…
your summer job (not necessarily in that order). I know, you first have
to get through final exams, but who knows if you’ll stick around after your
last exam to read this column! So here it goes.
A panel of local practitioners met with law faculty last quarter to discuss how law schools can
better prepare their students for real world practice of law. During the
discussion, the panel mentioned that they would like to see more of certain
qualities or skills in law students. The following is a paraphrase of
what they said - keeping these tips in mind may make your summer job
experience more successful.
You already know how important it is to be able to write well. After
all, you are entering a profession where you’re paid not just for your ideas
but how you express those ideas. So it’s not a bad idea to always try to
improve your writing. If you want help on getting started, take a look
at the Library’s guide at http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/writing.htm.
A lot can fall under this category but one thing that the panel brought up in
particular was email in the workplace. Some were appalled at email style
used in a professional setting, and others thought law students lacked an
understanding of legal ramifications of email in the workplace (for a
spotlight on the latter topic, read the next few weeks’ Law Library News).
One of the panel members expressed that a negotiation class should be required
in law school.
This is self-explanatory, so I don’t know what
more to say other than show enthusiasm, ask questions, and let it show if you
think the work is interesting and worthwhile. If not, don't grouse about it
(at least not publicly).
The panel decried issue spotting. In contrast to a typical law school
exam where the name of the game is issue spotting (heck, if you run out of
time, you may still get partial points for jotting down the issues without
analysis), the panel said they want to be told about the two most important
issues, not all the issues that you see.
Ah, the importance of working in groups and brainstorming...
- Time and Project Management
Moot court board experience was mentioned as being valuable but any experience
organizing an event such as finding and reserving the venue, lining up
speakers, and forming contingency plans is valuable.
Summer Job Tips Parts 2 and 3 are coming in the future issues of the Law Library News.
Library Displays – New
Did you see the two additional law student organizations now featured in the glass display cases
as you walk into the Library? Our staff member Nikki Pike created these
wonderful displays on the Student Health Law Organization and Phi Delta Phi.
They’re right next to the existing display on International Law. Check them out!
How Can Something So Wrong Feel So Right?: Reading Ethics Opinions for Fun
--Beth Williams, Law Library Intern
I admit it. I’m not proud, but I can’t help myself. Every month I receive my Maine Bar
Journal in the mail and I head straight to the back for the disciplinary
notices. It’s like a siren song of guilty pleasure, taunting me to heed
the cautionary message without cracking the slightest smile of disbelief at
the conduct of my fellow bar members. That wasn’t me emailing my old
boss a copy of the court order temporarily suspending an attorney who’d
brought new meaning to the term “opposing counsel” in a particularly difficult
case I tried last year. No, ma’am – not me.
But trying to hide my shame only makes it worse. As ironically unprofessional as it sounds,
sometimes these decisions are just plain funny. More to the point,
sometimes they’re just so awful; they can contain descriptions of attorney
conduct that seems so outrageous that your first instinct is to laugh.
But I think the laughter hides a secret. I could never do that (“ha,
ha”), could I? What drives attorneys to make the kinds of
mistakes that cost them their practice, their pride, their reputation?
Ah, the drama of reading disciplinary opinions! It’s nothing like
reading Kant’s second Critique, but there are more similarities than
you may think. So read a few as I do and go ahead and laugh a little in
private, but don’t forget that these people were once students, too, hoping
and planning to become lawyers one day.
(Okay, so I misled you a little with my title. Disciplinary decisions aren’t technically ethics
opinions, but it’s a little hard to get fired up about reading formal ethics
opinions and certainly harder to turn a phrase with “disciplinary” in it.)
Where can you find these materials and additional guidance on all things ethical on the Web?
- Be sure to visit the Gallagher Law Library’s research guide on Washington State Ethics Opinions
at http://lib.law.washington.edu/ref/waethics.html. Note in
particular the Washington State Bar Association’s search engine for disciplinary notices at
http://pro.wsba.org/PublicDisciplineSearch.asp.
- For a list of lawyer disciplinary agencies in every state, visit the ABA’s Center for
Professional Responsibility at http://www.abanet.org/cpr/regulation/scpd/disciplinary.html.
Nearly every state publishes their code or rules, their formal and informal ethics opinions, and their disciplinary decisions on these websites.
- The ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct is a loose-leaf in three parts:
a regularly updated manual on professional conduct, a current awareness
publication, and several volumes of ethics opinions from the ABA and the
states. This resource is available to you in a variety of formats:
- Law School students, faculty and staff may access an online version through the Library’s
catalog record by doing a title search for this loose-leaf and then
clicking on “Connect to this title on the Internet.” Once you’re in
the BNA database, under “Ethics Opinions” click on either “ABA Ethics
Opinion” or “State Ethics Opinions” to see primary materials.
Additionally, under “Ethics Rules” there are links to the ABA Model Rules
and states’ ethics rules. Note also that the Web site has
electronic versions of a number of practice guides.
- On Westlaw (ABA-BNA) – ethics opinions from 1986 through current.
- The online versions are great, particularly if you already know what you’re looking for; but
for browsing, I recommend using the print volumes (available at KF 305 A8
A23 1984 in Reference Area).
- Cornell’s Legal Information Institute Web site has an entire section devoted to this subject
called the American Legal Ethics Library at
http://www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/. This digital library contains
the codes or rules for professional responsibility with commentaries for
each state.
- The topic of April 2005 edition of Law Practice Today, an ABA publication, is
malpractice. Check out its list of legal ethics Web sites at
http://www.abanet.org/lpm/lpt/articles/slc04051.html.
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